Thursday, 29 March 2012

1960s vintage Italian Phantom-style guitar from Boyfendery

This Boyfendery Phantom is a curious guitar. Allegedly made in Catelfidardo, Italy, it is obviously styled after the Vox Phantom guitars popular at the time and which were also made in Italy. However, the Boyfendery, either by accident or design, has gotten the Phantom shape wrong, and the design is not helped by a German carve, nor a badly designed pickguard which is totally lacking in grace. Is it any wonder that the Boyfendery name isn't better known? How many guitarists do you know who in the 1960s would have been comfortable playing a guitar with a name that sounded like "boyfriend"? Not a good marketing strategy, methinks.

When I first saw the photo for this guitar, I thought that the headstock should have been shaped like that on a Vox guitar of the period, but had suffered some damage. However, this example on Fetish Guitars has the exact same headstock shape so it looks like it was made that way deliberately.

This guitar is currently being auctioned on eBay with bidding starting at €1. The seller claims that "this is one of the rarest guitars in the world" but rare does not necessarily equal desirable so it'll be interesting to see what this sells for.